Why Southern California police are struggling to hire more cops

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Applicants do push-ups as Sheriff’s Investigator Nelson Guzman, left, gives out instructions during the agility test to potentially become new Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies at Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center in Riverside in August. Potential deputies undergo fitness test to determined their physical abilities. Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG

Early one morning before the Inland heat burned the chill off the air outdoors, dozens of men and a handful of women in workout clothes sweated their way through pushups, sit-ups and a 1.5-mile run.

A white-haired man in a tan Riverside County Sheriff’s Department polo shirt gave everyone a pep talk before the run, which they had to finish in 14 minutes to qualify as potential deputies.

“There’s only two reasons we run,” Sheriff’s Investigator Nelson Guzman told them. “Either you’re in pursuit or you’re running to the aid of your partner.”

Out of 163 people who took the sheriff’s monthly agility test in August, 119 passed — and just a few will eventually join a law enforcement agency.

Applicants run a 1.5-mile course during the agility test to potentially become new Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies at Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center in Riverside in August.

And with many Southern California agencies hoping to fill hundreds of vacancies, experts say hiring cops right now is both challenging and extremely competitive.

Some law enforcement agencies are so eager to attract experienced officers, they’re offering incentives. Downey, in Los Angeles County, offers a $3,000 bonus plus extra vacation and sick time for transfers. In the Riverside County city of Hemet, the Police Department is advertising a $15,000 signing bonus.

And with the sheer volume of hiring they want to do agencies are also looking for new recruits.

Police and sheriff’s departments across the state and beyond have seen their ranks shrink because of retirements and the recession, but a number of them are now trying to reverse the trend.

“This is a nationwide problem. We’re not alone in this,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Bill Jaeger, who heads the department’s recruitment unit.

“I don’t believe there is an agency anywhere in the country that is having no trouble filling their ranks.”

That’s in addition to the individual needs of departments, such as the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s plans to seek funding for more than 160 new deputies and support personnel to improve medical and mental healthcare for jail inmates.

Beefing up law enforcement staffing likely won’t be fast or easy.

The many tests and high standards would-be officers must meet, the public’s new scrutiny of police conduct, pension reform and a competitive hiring environment add obstacles to recruitment.

“Recruits are in high demand,” said Gardena Police Chief Edward Medrano, who leads the California Police Chiefs Association. “That’s universally occurring across California.”

And it’s not just in the state.

In its June issue, the national Police Chief magazine called the recruitment situation a “crisis.” Not everyone thinks such strong language is warranted, but there seems to be a consensus that law enforcement faces big recruitment challenges.

“Essentially the whole country is going through this problem,” said Nelson Lim, a senior sociologist at Santa Monica-based RAND Corporation who studies police recruiting.

Attrition, economics compound problem

While some agencies have their own unique circumstances, the two most common factors driving today’s law enforcement hiring blitz are attrition – retirements and other employee turnover – and the aftermath of the recession.

Both issues are at play in the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, said Lt. Matthew Stiverson, who helps manage recruiting.

A major recruiting effort nearly three decades ago brought in a wave of deputies who are now eligible to retire, he said.

And a hiring freeze around 2008 meant the department “basically had to do more with less back then, and we’re still recovering,” Stiverson said.

In the Inland area, lack of funding during the economic downturn hit Redlands police especially hard, said Jim Bueermann, who retired as that city’s police chief in 2011.

“By the time the recession was over, we had lost about a third of the department,” said Bueermann, who now heads the Police Foundation, a nonprofit research and training organization.

In San Bernardino, financial woes stemming from the city’s 2012 bankruptcy chopped the number of budgeted police positions by 25 percent, from 334 to 248.

Dozens of other officers, saying they didn’t trust the city and feared further cuts, transferred or retired over the next three years.

The city has recruited heavily since then to reach the numbers in the 2017 budget – 260 sworn officers – but as of September, it hadn’t met the goal.

At big agencies such as the 1,800-deputy Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, “We are constantly hiring,” Sgt. Robert Pickowitz said.

Mid-sized and smaller agencies are hiring, too. In Riverside, residents named public safety as a top priority when they voted to increase the city sales tax in November 2016. City officials are responding.

Riverside police are looking to hire about 60 officers over the next five years, plus dispatchers and civilian employees. That would bring the agency to about 410 sworn officers in a city of about 320,000 people.

Police Chief Sergio Diaz said the move is intended not just to decrease crime, but to respond more quickly to calls.

People recognize that if they call police now, “There could be a delay of hours sometimes before a police officer comes to (their) door,” Diaz said.

Mission Viejo Sheriff deputy Olivia Coco takes part in the Orange County Sheriff’s women’s fitness challenge, a Crossfit-style competition in Tustin in April.

It’s an employee’s market

With so many jobs open, it’s a great time for anyone considering a law enforcement career.

But what’s good for job seekers may be bad for recruiters: the hiring process is rigorous and selective, so the pool of qualified candidates is small and highly sought-after.

The process to become a sworn law enforcement officer has many steps that can take six months or more. And, at each step, a percentage of candidates drop out or get disqualified.

Applicants must complete physical agility and psychological tests, sit for two interviews and a written exam, and pass a background check and polygraph test.

Some agencies have relaxed their prohibition on tattoos, but most wouldn’t hire someone with highly visible ink or tattoos with racist or gang-related content.

Past drug use could be a disqualifying issue, as could bad credit or a large number of speeding tickets. Why? If someone ran up credit card bills and didn’t pay, “That’s a judgment issue,” former Riverside Deputy Chief John Wallace, who has now retired, said in February 2017.

Candidates who make it through those steps must then attend a law enforcement academy. The state requires nearly 800 hours of training, but many academies offer more, and it can take five to six months to complete, said Curtis J. Cope, a retired police lieutenant and an instructor for the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.

Anyone can pay to attend the academy on their own, just like college or trade school, but if a department has recruited you, they pay.

After the academy, a rookie officer goes to work in the field with training officers, which lasts another four to six months.

Wallace estimated that out of 100 applicants, typically just three or four would join the Riverside Police Department. And hiring 911 dispatchers can be even harder: At one Riverside County Sheriff’s dispatch academy in 2017, thousands applied, and fewer than 10 people passed, Pickowitz said.

The Police Chief magazine article, citing California state data, noted that some agencies have seen 98.5 percent of applicants fail somewhere in the screening process.

And that’s just among those who apply.

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s tactic staff trains cadets aspiring to join law enforcement agencies at San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Frank Bland Regional Training Center in September.

Other careers, concerns thin pool

The economic upturn that’s allowing law enforcement agencies to hire now also means fewer people consider becoming cops because they have other career options, experts said.

“It’s really, really bad timing because the economy is good and people can find jobs,” said Lim, the RAND researcher.

He added that local agencies are also competing for recruits with the federal government, which plans to beef up the Border Patrol and expand the military.

And unlike a generation or two ago, some law enforcement officials said, concerns about safety and the public image of cops could discourage some.

Many young people – particularly minorities – aren’t applying, said Terrance Stone, who runs a youth leadership academy in San Bernardino.

Among the kids he works with, he said, “When one person says, ‘I want to be a detective or (in) law enforcement,’ the 20 other kids frown down that kid.”

High-profile officer deaths such as the 2016 killing of five Dallas police may convince some that the job is too dangerous. How officers handle high-pressure situations has come under increasing scrutiny as the use of body cameras and cell phone videos has become widespread.

When Wallace, the retired Riverside deputy chief, began his career 30 years ago, cops were seen as the good guys upholding the law, he recalled. Today, their actions are often second-guessed, he said.

“We have a whole lot of judges and juries in society today,” Wallace said.

Others said those issues haven’t made much of a dent in recruitment.

In fact, San Bernardino Police Lt. Mike Madden said, after the Dec. 2, 2015, terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center, the department saw a surge in applications from rookies as well as officers from other departments.

Jennifer Shows, who passed the Riverside County Sheriff’s agility test in August on her fourth try, wants to become a sworn officer to try to fix problems she saw growing up in San Bernardino such as gang and drug issues and prostitution.

Public criticism of officer-involved shootings “just makes me want to be in law enforcement more,” said Shows, 26. “I feel that I can help those people change their view of law enforcement.”

Law enforcement cadets run into formation at San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s Frank Bland Regional Training Center in San Bernardino on Sept. 14, 2017. (Photo by Rachel Luna, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

What’s the solution?

Southern California agencies are trying a variety of approaches to meet the challenge of filling their ranks.

Hemet police recently boosted their signing bonus from $10,000 to $15,000 for officers with experience, who are referred to as “laterals.”

Many agencies are competing for the same pool of new officers, but most also want people with experience so they’re not filling all their jobs with rookies.

Last year, Riverside considered offering laterals two weeks’ vacation up front and a cash bonus for those who recruit a friend to the department, though it didn’t end up needing those incentives.

Stiverson said Orange County Sheriff’s officials are also eyeing older workers in hopes that those who are ready to retire and want a second career will consider applying.

Even applicants who don’t qualify to become a deputy sheriff may fit in the department somewhere.

“I like to think we have a position for anybody,” Stiverson said.

Many agencies said avenues such as Facebook and Instagram are helping them reach out to younger recruits and answer their questions.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department uses social media to put a different spin on what it has to offer, Jaeger said.

The department also has boat operators, dive and search-and-rescue teams and six full-time SWAT teams.

“If you’re looking to not become bored … and you think that sitting in a patrol car for 30 years is what you’d be doing, we’re trying to educate people that we’re something very different,” Jaeger said.

Many agencies have learned that recruitment should start with building a “farm team” of Explorers and cadets, said Medrano, the California chiefs’ association leader.

Explorers are teen and young adult volunteers who learn about the justice system and leadership skills. Cadets are similar to apprentices or interns who help fill out reports and do other civilian police tasks.

Sally Brink of Orange climbs a rope during the Orange County Sheriff’s women’s fitness challenge in Tustin in April. The event was for women in law enforcement, potential recruits and others like Brink who is a teacher.

David Reynaga, 21, started as an Explorer and recently worked as a Riverside Police Cadet for more than a year.

“All my life I always wanted to do something that involved helping people,” Reynaga said in March 2017.

He knows the job carries risks, but “To me, this is something that I want to do for the rest of my life.”

Some say meeting the 21st-century challenges of law enforcement staffing calls for new approaches.

Bueermann, the former Redlands chief, said his department transferred some work to civilian employees and volunteers, such as taking crime reports when no suspect is present.

“Agencies that aren’t thinking about civilians or volunteers are going to be forced to do that if they can’t find enough police officer candidates,” he said.

Lim, the RAND researcher, said the high failure rate during the screening process suggests it’s time to overhaul the standards, but he stressed that doesn’t necessarily mean lowering them.

Some law enforcement professionals say only the best candidates should be entrusted with the community’s safety.

Lim said research has suggested written tests can disproportionately disqualify minorities, and some physical tests have been called discriminatory toward women.

“You look at the job and you ask yourself, what is it that good police officers do every day?” Lim said. “Sometimes these things are so arbitrary that you’re missing out on a lot of good people.”

Whatever approach agencies take to find recruits, experts agree they’ll need to keep at it because the situation isn’t likely to change soon.

“You haven’t seen the worst,” Lim said.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to report that Riverside did not go through with plans to offer two weeks’ vacation up front and a cash bonus for those who recruit a friend to the department.

Correctional Deputy Randall Tackett, center, gives instructions to applicants as they take part in the agility test to potentially become new Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies at Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center in Riverside in August. Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG

Alicia Robinson covers Anaheim for The Orange County Register. She previously spent 10 years at The Press-Enterprise writing about Riverside and local government as well as Norco, Corona, homeless issues, Alzheimer's disease, streetcars, butterflies, horses and chickens. She grew up in the Midwest but earned Southern California native status during many hours spent in traffic. Two big questions Alicia tries to answer in stories about government are: how is it supposed to work, and how is it working?